Use of erythropoietin for bloodless surgery in a Jehovah's witness infant

We present a case of surgery in a 2-month-old infant of the Jehovah's Witness (JW) faith weighing 2.8 kg scheduled for left upper lobectomy because of congenital lobar emphysema. He presented with physiological anaemia ( haematocrit 33.8%) in accordance with his age. Because of the relative emergency of surgery, a short erythropoietin course was instituted. Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) at a dosage of 180 U.kg(-1).day(-1) was administered for 10 days preoperatively and for 4 days postoperatively. Iron was administered orally and intravenously over the entire perioperative period. No side-effects from either erythropoietin or intravenously administered iron were observed. To our knowledge, this is the first case published of a short perioperative rHuEPO course in an infant.